Senior guard Kyle Odister went 3 of 8 from the field with three 3-pointers in a 74-65 loss at Long Beach State on Saturday.
Mustang News Staff Report
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The Cal Poly men’s basketball team dropped its fifth game in its last six contests with a 74-65 road loss to Long Beach State on Saturday night.
The Mustangs (9-15, 5-6 Big West) took the lead on senior forward Chris Everlsey’s jumper with 18:04 to go, but Long Beach State guard Tyler Lamb scored 10 straight points to jump-start an 11-3 run for the 49ers midway through the frame to seal the game.
Lamb, a transfer from UCLA, led the Long Beach State with 19 points, while Mike Caffey finished with 18.
“It comes down to Caffey and Lamb are high-major players,” Cal Poly head coach Joe Callero told ESPN Radio 1280 following the game. “…Sometimes teams play simply better than you. We can live with that. We’ve got to spend some time as a team in the next couple weeks really on our offense.”
Only one Cal Poly player, senior guard Kyle Odister, scored in double-figures on Saturday. He led the Mustangs with 11 points on 3 of 8 shooting and hit three 3-pointers on the night.
Cal Poly’s top two scorers, Eversley and sophomore wing David Nwaba, were held to a combined 4 of 20 shooting from the floor. Eversley finished with eight points, while Nwaba had seven. The Mustangs are averaging fewer than 59 points per game in their last six games.
The Mustangs shot 35 percent from the field as a team compared to Long Beach State’s 53.8 percent, including a 66.7 percent clip in the second half.
With the loss, the Mustangs fell 3.5 games behind conference-leader UC Irvine in the Big West standings.
Cal Poly returns home on Thursday for a 7 p.m. matchup against Cal State Fullerton in Mott Athletics Center.
Stephan Teodosescu contributed to this report.